From Cochrane AB we stayed on the
Trans-Canada highway, through Banff AB. Near Sicamous we turned
south on highway 97A/97, following the Okanagan valley to Kelowna.
From Kelowna we took the 97C connector toward the Coquihalla. We
turned down 5A to Princeton, where we took highway 3 to highway 1.
From there it was a bunch of back roads into the RV park in Surrey,
next door to the Pacific Crossing to the USA.

Highlights:

We travelled over the kicking horse
pass (URLhere),
elevation 1627 metres. It straddles the continental divide about 10
km west of Lake Louise. Sir James Hector and his party explored the
pass in 1858. Hector was kicked in the chest by a packhorse, thus
the name. The pass, which connects Yoho and Banff national parks, is
also crossed by the Canadian Pacific Railway, via spiral tunnels.
Next comes Rogers pass (URLhere).
Travelling through Rogers Pass requires going through five long
tunnels, which provide protection from avalanches and falling rocks.
The lofty sensation of crossing Rogers Pass is one of the rewards for
travelling here. Rogers Pass, elevation 1382 metres, is located at
the summit in Glacier National Park. We never tire of travelling
this road as the scenery is awesome. Our timing was fortunate; we
had ideal weather, until, near Revelstoke, we encountered light rain.
Only days later it snowed in the mountains. We walked around
Revelstoke, but many of the attractions were closed, and we could not
really do it justice because of the rain. So we moved on.

The trip down the Okanagan valley
(ckickforURL)
is awesome, as there are numerous views of the mountains and lakes,
and there are places to pull over to rest and just have a look. In
Kelowna, the largest city in the valley, we met up with Maurice's
friends and their families from work (both named Bob). Having our RV
with us made for a much better stay than when travelling by
car...much less hurried. We stayed an extra two days to be able to
have a good visit.

The leg from Kelowna to Vancouver was
a bit troublesome. We opted for the easier drive along the
Coquihalla. It turned out to be anything but easy. First, there is
a spot on the connector with an exceptionally long, steep hill, and
at one point our motorhome overheated, even though it was cold
outside. After we got it cooled down we continued up the mountain in
third gear at about 25 miles per hour, hazard lights flashing...we
are right at home travelling with semis! Then, while travelling
along the connector, we encountered a temporary sign, just before the
5A turn-off, that we thought said highway 5 south was closed. No
detour route was indicated, so we make a snap decision to take
highway 5A south. |It seemed logical, given the placement of the
sign...wrong! About half way down we encountered a semi
tractor/trailer rig that had gone over a small cliff and was being
extracted. The road was down to one lane, with flagmen. So, the
sign must have said that 5A south was closed. Anyway, we continued
on over the hundreds of hills and curves on highway 5A, then turned
west on highway 3, which wound around some more. We arrived in
Surrey just before dark, tired and a bit sore; as easy as it is to
drive, the motorhome takes rather more effort than a car.

Our stay in Vancouver has been great.
We have family and several friends there. So we have stayed long
enough to see nearly everyone. Since we were here for (Canadian)
Thanksgiving, we were invited to dinner, first with Maurice's cousin,
Bill and his family, then with our friends Barry and Jan. We had a
nice visit with Charlie Fisher, who retired from the civil service a
few years after Maurice started working with him in Winnipeg. He's
still going strong at over 96, and points out that he has been
retired for longer than he worked. It's great to see someone of his
age with such a sharp mind enjoying retirement. It was nice to be
with friends and family during the holiday, as we missed being with
our children.

One of the neat things about the
Pacific Border RV park is that it is alongside the Canada/USA border,
bounded by zero street. On one side of the street the houses are in
the USA and on the other they are in Canada. While walking the dog
along zero street we notice an apple tree on an empty lot; a short
illegal crossing followed to liberate a few apples. Later we were
told that a guy from the RV park had been walking his dog and strayed
into the USA...and was escorted by officials back to the RV Park!

Our friend Barry is an accomplished
handyman, who readily agreed to help us fix the mess that the
cabinetmaker in Ottawa created with our shelves, office nook and a
few other areas in the RV. Since he has a big shop behind his house,
modifying the office nook and varnishing everything that the
cabinetmaker failed to do was easy, especially since Barry did most
of the work ;-) He also built a slid-out unit for one of our
cupboards that the cabinet maker in Ottawa could not do.

An easy side-trip at this time of year
is to Vancouver Island. Unlike during the summer, there are usually
no long waits for the ferry crossing. We went with our friends Barry
& Jan to a lovely resort at Crystal Cove Tofino (URLhere),
where we had a two bedroom log cottage right on the water. Tofino is
Canada's surfing capital, as during the winter there are huge waves.
Our second stop on the Island was in Victoria. We were at a lovely
five-star B&B near Government House (abbeymoore.com).
As luck would have it, the Olympic Torch Relay parade went right by
us. Alas, due to a bunch of demonstrators being present down the
street, the actual torch exchange, which was to take place right in
front of us, happened up the street, nearly out of sight. Still, it
was way cool.

October was our month to be under the
weather; we both had lingering colds. With all the hoopla about
H1N1, our first concern was that we might have that, but we think we
didn't. But we did the responsible thing and holed up in the
motorhome until we were sure.

While in Vancouver we had some minor
problems with the RV. It would appear that when our inverter went
out (as mentioned in the last report), it took out our automatic
awning retraction control and our energy management system. (EMS)
The former is no big deal, as we usually furl the awning before
leaving the RV. The EMS is another matter; it is the gadget that
allows us to hook up our coach, which is wired for 50-amps 250-volts,
to RV parks that are wired for 30-amps 120-volt (or less), without
popping the shore-power circuit breaker. We took it into Fraserway
RV, one of the biggest RV repair centres in the country, and they
found the problem to be a capacitor on the control board.
Unfortunately, they don't do board-level repairs. And, as usual,
getting replacement parts is a problem.